Finance Director

Application Deadline: 23 September 2026

Department: Finance

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Rigby Road Depot

Compensation: £90,000 - £110,000 / year

Description

As a Director, you will form part of the executive leadership of Blackpool Transport and take collective responsibility for the effective leadership, performance, safety, compliance and long-term success of the company. You will provide strategic leadership across Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology and Marketing while ensuring that decisions support the wider needs of our company, our customers, our employees and our shareholder. You will be expected to maintain strong governance, manage resources effectively, deliver against agreed budgets and performance targets, and contribute to a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, collaboration and public service.

As Finance Director, you will hold executive accountability for the company’s financial strategy, financial control, statutory reporting, management information, cash flow, audit, payroll oversight and long-term financial sustainability. You will act as the principal financial adviser to the Managing Director, Board and shareholder, providing clear, balanced and evidence-based advice and ensuring that financial risks, commitments and decisions are properly understood and controlled.

The role also has executive responsibility for HR, IT and Marketing. The postholder will set strategy, agree priorities and budgets, line manage the relevant functional leads and hold them accountable for delivery. Specialist professional responsibilities must remain with suitably competent people, but the Finance Director will ensure that each function is well governed, adequately resourced, compliant, resilient and aligned with the company’s operational and commercial objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic and Executive Leadership

Develop and deliver the financial and business support strategy for Blackpool Transport, aligned with the company business plan and shareholder priorities.
Act as strategic adviser to the Managing Director, Board and shareholder, providing constructive challenge and clear analysis of financial, workforce, technology, marketing and organisational implications.
Take collective responsibility with fellow Directors for company performance, safety, governance, risk, culture and delivery, not solely the functions directly managed by the role.
Line manage the senior leaders responsible for Finance, HR, IT and Marketing through clear objectives, budgets, performance measures and reporting arrangements.

Financial Leadership and Governance

Maintain a strong financial-control environment with clear delegations, policies, procedures, reconciliations, approvals, segregation of duties and assurance arrangements.
Ensure accurate and timely statutory accounts, management accounts, regulatory returns, payroll information and other financial reports.
Lead the external audit process and maintain effective relationships with auditors, advisers, banks, pension providers, insurers, funders and other financial stakeholders.
Ensure compliance with applicable accounting standards, company law, tax requirements, pension obligations, funding conditions, financial regulations and shareholder requirements.
Provide the Board and shareholder with clear reporting on financial performance, cash, liquidity, reserves, borrowing, commitments, risks and emerging pressures.

Budgeting, Forecasting and Business Planning

Lead the annual budget, medium-term financial plan and long-term financial outlook.
Establish clear budgets, targets and accountabilities for Directors and Heads of Department and ensure performance is monitored through timely and reliable management information.
Challenge financial forecasts, business plans and investment proposals to ensure assumptions are realistic, risks are visible and proposed outcomes are measurable.
Ensure significant decisions are supported by proportionate business cases covering financial return, affordability, cash flow, risk, customer impact and strategic fit.
Coordinate corrective action where financial performance is below plan, ensuring actions have clear owners, timescales, quantified impacts and appropriate governance.
Develop scenario and sensitivity analysis to support decisions on fares, services, pay, funding, fleet, infrastructure, renewals and other material commitments.

Funding and Commercial Assurance

Maintain effective cash-flow management, ensuring the company can meet its obligations and has appropriate liquidity.
Lead negotiations and financial engagement relating to shareholder support, loans, grants, subsidies, partnership funding and other sources of finance.
Monitor compliance with funding agreements, loan covenants, contractual commitments and financial conditions, escalating risks.
Provide financial oversight of major contracts, tenders, capital programmes, fleet investment, infrastructure renewals and transformation projects.
Ensure procurement and contract decisions demonstrate value for money, appropriate competition, clear accountability and effective management of commercial and financial risk.
Maintain appropriate insurance arrangements and ensure significant claims, uninsured risks and changes in exposure are properly reported and managed.

Business Support

Provide strategic leadership for HR, ensuring workforce planning supports safe operations, effective service delivery, employee wellbeing and long-term organisational capability.
Lead the strategic development of IT, aligning systems, infrastructure, support and investment with operational, customer, financial and business requirements.
Shape the strategic approach to Marketing, driving patronage and revenue growth, strengthening customer engagement and public information, and enhancing the company’s brand in line with shareholder priorities.

Risk, Compliance and Business Resilience

Lead the company’s financial and corporate risk-management arrangements, ensuring key risks are identified, assessed, owned, controlled, monitored and reported.
Ensure Finance, HR, IT and Marketing maintain suitable policies, risk assessments, controls, audits, action trackers, records and evidence of compliance.
Coordinate assurance across the functions and escalate material financial, employment, cyber, data, reputational or business-continuity risks to the Managing Director and Board.
Ensure recommendations from audits, reviews, incidents and regulatory activity are adequately resourced, assigned, tracked and closed with suitable evidence.

Policy Statement

As Finance Director at Blackpool Transport I acknowledge and accept the responsibilities placed on me as 'The Employer' by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and other relevant legislation.

Health, safety and welfare of all staff is of paramount importance, and a safe and healthy working environment is a prerequisite to achieving the goals of our business plan.

Through the implementation of the Health and Safety Policy, the Directors and the Leadership Team are committed to achieving the following objectives:

To provide, as far as reasonably practicable, a safe and healthy working environment, safe premises and facilities for staff, customers and stakeholders.
To create for employees, as far as is practicable, a working environment where potential work-related stressors are avoided, minimised or mitigated through good management practices, effective human resources policies and staff development.
To ensure that all staff are aware of their health and safety responsibilities and know what is expected of them and what they must do to discharge the responsibilities assigned to them.
To ensure that staff have access to appropriate training and development to enable them to discharge competently the responsibilities assigned to them.
To have an effective system for communicating and consulting on health and safety matters, and securing the co-operation of employees, customers and stakeholders in implementing the Health and Safety Policy.
To have in place arrangements to plan, implement, monitor and review measures to address risks arising from the operational activities.
To strive to improve continuously Blackpool Transports health and safety performance, measuring its progress against agreed performance standards and benchmarking.

The Directors and Leadership Team seek and expect the full co-operation and support of the whole workforce to ensure that the Health and Safety Policy and arrangements are implemented effectively.

This policy will be regularly monitored to ensure that we are achieving our objectives. In addition, the policy will be reviewed annually and if necessary revised.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Qualifications

Essential

Fully qualified accountant or significant relevant industry experience.

Desirable

Management, leadership, business, HR, information technology, project management or governance qualification.
Relevant professional development in employment law, cybersecurity, data protection, marketing or risk management.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential

Experience as senior financial leader or equivalent within a complex, regulated or public-service organisation.
Strong technical knowledge of financial accounting, management accounting, budgeting, forecasting, audit, internal control and statutory reporting.
Experience of managing cash flow, borrowing, contracts and capital programmes.
Strong leadership, communication, negotiation and influencing skills.

Desirable

Experience within passenger transport, local government, a regulated utility or another asset-intensive and safety-critical environment.
Experience of overseeing HR, IT, cybersecurity, data protection, Marketing or other corporate-service functions.
Experience of pensions, insurance, procurement, payroll, complex contracts or capital-investment governance.

Behaviours

Essential

Acts with integrity, independence and professional courage, providing objective advice even when conclusions are difficult or unpopular.
Commercially astute and strategically minded, with a strong commitment to financial sustainability and public value.
Safety-focused and unwilling to allow financial or corporate pressures to compromise safe and compliant decision-making.
Visible, accountable and decisive while actively seeking evidence, competent professional advice and constructive challenge.
Calm, organised and resilient under pressure, particularly during financial challenge, incidents, regulatory scrutiny or organisational change.
Collaborative and respectful, with the ability to unite specialist functions around shared business outcomes and clear responsibilities.
Demonstrates sound judgement, discretion, fairness and a strong commitment to employees, customers, continuous improvement and public service.

Benefits

33 days’ holiday per year inclusive of 8 public holidays.
'Recruit a friend' scheme.
Free travel on all our bus and tram services (with additional passes available for a few of your nearest and dearest)
Learning and Development opportunities.
Enrolment into the Blackpool Transport pension scheme and access to pension advice if needed.
Work/life assistance offering help and support available 24 hours a day through our Employee Assistance Programme.
Exclusive Discounts on shopping, days out and much more through Spark
Discounted Gym membership at all Blackpool Council gyms.
Free onsite parking

Key Responsibilities

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Benefits

About Blackpool Transport Services